Nicest Commute Ever

Today, I enjoyed one of the most pleasant commuting experiences ever. Bundled up, I simply rode against non-existant traffic down Madison Avenue from my apartment to my office. Due to the transit strike, the NYPD has closed 5th and Madison so that emergency traffic can get around town. So, it was me and almost no one else cruising down Madison. Aside from my fingertips getting a tad chilly (I had on bike gloves that look like they are 80's breakdancing gloves), it was so nice that I'm thinking of doing it more often. I was afraid that I would get to work too sweaty and while that may true in the spring or summer, today everything ended perfectly. I think I sweat more riding on the subway believe it or not.

As for the strike itself, I think the union is shooting themselves in the foot. They are going to lose a lot of money via lawsuits for their illegal strike (see NYS's Taylor Law) and the pension plan that they are fighting over is lucidrious. The idea and implementation of pensions as a whole in this country needs to be revamped because we've seen lately that the old model is not sustainable (see Delphia filing for bankruptcy, GE's recent round of 30K layoffs, etc). The TWU's inflexiblilty will only hurt their future workers, not help them, because its setting up a situation where the entire pension "house of cards" will come crashing down at some point in the future instead of proactively managing the change that invariably needs to happen.

I for one am off tomorrow but in a way I hope they keep striking so I can ride traffic-free again on Thursday.